A disruptive model for collaboration was set into motion in 1998 knitting four communities together to form the GIS Consortium; in this model communities share staffing, software, and infrastructure to enhance communication and sharing of information across departments by delivering a robust geographic information system (GIS) in their communities. The charter members of the GIS Consortium included the City of Highland Park, City of Park Ridge, Village of Lincolnshire, and Village of Glencoe. Today the GIS Consortium is 32 communities strong and growing!

In the fall of 2014 the managers of these communities came together for a strategic discussion where they considered questions like, “What other big problems could we solve together?” “How can we get access to enhanced services for our residents while revenues decline and expenses rise?” “How do we leverage the buying power we have in more places?” Today this group of managers call themselves the Leadership Roundtable and they are committed to thrive despite the circumstances around them by operating from their circle of influence.

Local government has always solved tough issues; these communities are simply leveraging the opportunity to do this together. We predict that this forum of managers will continue to be leaders who demonstrate what is possible when communities in local government collaborate.